Beta 32 for Windows (32 and 64-bit) is now available at:

  http://www.povray.org/beta/

Source code will be updated in due course. Linux users will need to wait a
few days, sorry :)

-------------------------------------------
Changes between 3.7.beta.31 and 3.7.beta.32
-------------------------------------------

Added ARRAYS_WriteDF3 macro to arrays.inc for writing an array to a df3 file.

Fixed bug creating artifacts in output file when mosaic preview is used
with +EP2 and -A.

Several Unix build fixes.

Added radiosity octree performance stats and fixed stats for max trace
level & parse time.

Made some improvements to performance in crackle cache, and optimised the
management of the crackle cache size by setting limits in megabytes
(currently per-thread and not user-settable: this will change).
	
-------------
Binary #write
-------------

It is now possible to write 8, 16 and 32-bit words to an external file.
These words may be arranged in either little or big-endian fashion.

Placing one of the following keywords in the argument list of a #write
statement causes the values up to the next comma to be written in binary
format, using 2's complement integer representation, rounded to the nearest
integer in the representable range:

  uint8              - unsigned byte (0..255)
  sint8              - signed byte (-128..127)
  uint16be, uint16le - unsigned 16-bit word (0..65535)
  sint16be, sint16le - signed 16-bit word (-32768..32767)
  sint32be, sint32le - signed 32-bit word (-2^31..2^31-1)

As of now, unsigned 32-bit words are not supported.

Keywords ending in "be" will cause the values to be written most
significant byte first ("big endian", aka network byte order) while those
ending in "le" will instead write the least significant byte first ("little
endian", Intel format).

The values to be written in binary must be numbers or vectors; the latter
will be written component by component as specified, in the standard x-y-z
order, without any separating or enclosing characters.

There is a sample macro called 'ARRAYS_WriteDF3' in arrays.inc which shows
how this feature may be used.

---------------------------------
Subsurface Light Transport (SSLT)
---------------------------------

Beta 32 adds experimental support for subsurface light transport (aka
subsurface scattering).
	
Currently, SSLT is activated for a particular object by adding the
following statement to its finish (note that this is very likely to change):
	
  subsurface { COLOR, COLOR }
	
specifying the (reduced) scattering coefficients (sigma'[s]) and absorption
coefficients (sigma[a]), respectively, in units of 1/mm, for each of the
three basic colors. The object's IOR will also affect the results.
	
The algorithm is designed to give realistic results at a scale of 10 mm per
POV-Ray unit by default; for other scales, place the following statement in
the global_settings section:
	
  mm_per_unit NUMBER
	
To tune the algorithm for quality or performance, the number of samples for
the diffuse scattering and single-scattering approximation, respectively,
can be specified by placing the following statement in the global_settings
section:
	
  subsurface { samples NUMBER, NUMBER }

There is a sample SSLT scene in scenes/subsurface/subsurface.pov.

SSLT is still in alpha stage.

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Cool new features in this beta. :)

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message

Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote:
> Cool new features in this beta. :)
>
> --
>                                                           - Warp


Downloaded!
Thank you *clipka*, thank you *chrisc* and thank you *calimet*!

--
Carlo

Post a reply to this message

Chris Cason wrote:
> -------------
> Binary #write
> -------------

Cool!  Now we can write a Reyes renderer in POV-Ray SDL!

Regards,
John

Post a reply to this message

> ---------------------------------
> Subsurface Light Transport (SSLT)
> ---------------------------------
>
> Beta 32 adds experimental support for subsurface light transport (aka
> subsurface scattering).

This is quite disconcerting and I must protest the decision to include this 
feature at this time.  I am swamped with work right now and will not be able 
to concentrate.

;)

Post a reply to this message

"Mike Hough" <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
> > ---------------------------------
> > Subsurface Light Transport (SSLT)
> > ---------------------------------
> >
> This is quite disconcerting and I must protest the decision to include this
> feature at this time.  I am swamped with work right now and will not be able
> to concentrate.
>
> ;)

Then maybe it will be comforting for you to know that the feature is still at a
very, very alpha-ish state and you're actually not missing too much ;)

Post a reply to this message

On 4/5/2009 6:15 PM, Mike Hough wrote:
>> ---------------------------------
>> Subsurface Light Transport (SSLT)
>> ---------------------------------
>>
>> Beta 32 adds experimental support for subsurface light transport (aka
>> subsurface scattering).
>
> This is quite disconcerting and I must protest the decision to include this
> feature at this time.  I am swamped with work right now and will not be able
> to concentrate.
>
> ;)
>
>

I'm not even going to *try* to look at it yet... only three weeks to go 
with the current classes, I can't afford to lose focus!

-- 
...Chambers
www.pacificwebguy.com

Post a reply to this message

"Carlo C." <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote:
> > Cool new features in this beta. :)
> >

> Downloaded!
> Thank you *clipka*, thank you *chrisc* and thank you *calimet*!

Yes!  Well, I'll wait a few more days to thank Calimet. ;)

Post a reply to this message

Chambers wrote:
> with the current classes, I can't afford to lose focus!

try "blur_samples 0"

Post a reply to this message

On Mon, 06 Apr 2009 22:29:21 +1000, Chris Cason
<del### [at] deletethistoopovrayorg> wrote:

>Chambers wrote:
>> with the current classes, I can't afford to lose focus!
>
>try "blur_samples 0"

Groan!
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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